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The Islands of Melueth
Between the kingdoms of the east and west lie the Islands of Melueth, a rough, disreputable place where anything can happen. It is a stop off point for ships of any sort, and every sort of person can be found on the main island. Money and power are all that matter on Melueth - there is no law enforcement of any kind. North west of the main Island is Tyrill Isle, an island bought by the retired adventurer Tyrill, who lives in a keep. To the south lies Mermaid's Reef and to the east, Redemption Cove. Story Significance Act 2 The party arrived at the North Port of Melueth following a rather quick and adventurous voyage, courtesy of Cherry Challinor, sea drakes and cecaelia. Looking for information amongst the locals they found that the auction was to take place at the back hall of the main island's largest tavern known as The Devil's Beard, held by its owner, Fensom. With their invitations in hand, the party attended, seeing all sorts of people bidding for various items mainly of historic nature. They waited until the end of the auction of the 'mystery item' on the list. Tyrion noticed that amongst the crowd was the same Lamashtu priest who they had encountered previously in the Sherringate Library. However, this time he was making no hostile moves. Fensom invited Tyrill to the stage, a retired human adventurer who was well recognised by the crowd and so wealthy that he bought one of the smaller islands nearby to be his home. Tyrill announced that he went to great lengths to obtain this item but as he was no longer able to take care of it, he wished to pass it on to the highest bidder. The curtain dropped and the whole hall was astonished to see a very young Bronze Dragon, captive in a reinforced cage. Bidding becomes furious, but the Lamashtu priest made an exit, seemingly disinterested and the party was uncertain as to what course of action to take next. Although the item was not the orb the party soon realised that the dragon should have knowledge on draconic artefacts, and must therefore know useful information about the orb. Obnoxious mages from the Eastern Human Kingdom won the bid and as the hall cleared, they arranged with Tyrill to pick up the beast the next evening. The party, deliberately eavesdropping on the conversation, decided to rescue the dragon from Tyrill's home, a small keep on Tyrill Isle. They decide to bed down for the night on Cherry's ship. While everyone slept Alberich heard a calling in his dreams. Leaving his equipment behind, he walked outside and made his way to the island's temple of Desna. Tyrion, having noticed, woke Haven up, but the two could not persuade Tully to follow. They stealthily caught up with Alberich who was greeted by a fellow priest of Desna outside their temple. As they listened in, Alberich was informed by the priest that the clergy needed him - a darkness was looming on the horizon, and the disciples of Lamashtu are moving once again. The Desna priest hoped that Alberich's short time with his fellow adventurers had prepared him for what's to come soon. Desna needed him now. Torn between his loyalty to the church and his party Alberich promised to return to the Desna temple the next night, to finish freeing the dragon with the party. Reluctantly, the priest accepted his compromise and awaited his return, bidding Alberich a good night. Alberich walked back to Cherry's ship and fell asleep, unaware that he had been followed. Haven and Tyrion decided to talk with him about it in the morning. The next day Haven and Tyrion made no hesitation in asking Alberich straight away about what had happened last night. Alberich explained and gave them notice that he would be departing from their company soon. Haven and Tyrion showed understanding, though Tully showed no interest. Cherry assigned one of her crew with a rowing boat to take the party to Tyrill Isle. Deciding to attempt a stealthier approach than engaging the front of the keep, the party crossed a small jungle with some rather aggressive fauna to find a back entrance. Easily breaking and entering into Tyrill's Keep, the party found the dragon. He revealed that he was captured as an egg and consequently has no knowledge of the orbs. He did however know the location of the dragon's nest where he would be able to return to in order to ask for this information. Despite his captivity the dragon was not hostile towards humanoids, due to the kindness of a servant that used to work at the keep. This servant's name was Leon. The news immediately caught Haven's interest but the dragon informed her that unfortunately Leon had not been himself since he tried to escape a week ago. Leon was somewhat psychologically damaged and had been taken in by a temple on the main Melueth Island. His condition was so bad Tyrill could not bring himself to employ Leon again. The party and the dragon escaped from the keep on Tyrill Isle. The party agreed to meet the dragon in a day's time at the Mermaid's Reef island, to give him time to meet with his fellow dragons and to return with information regarding the orb they are after. In the meantime the party returned to the Melueth main island, making their way to the Temple of Desna to say goodbye to Alberich. Shockingly, when they arrived, they found the temple had been destroyed - only rubble remained and there were a few priests helping others who were injured or still trapped under the fallen building. A few bodies lay at the side, and a priest scolded Alberich, telling him he was needed and he should have been there when it happened. Alberich fell to his knees, crying, feeling that he had failed his goddess, and with deep regret he bid farewell to the party. Haven, still eager to find her brother, led the party to search for Leon at the other temples on the island. They found him at the temple of Sarenrae where they bumped into Elras Arcamenel again. Elras had a word with the priests and escorted the party to a private room at the back, The party were shocked to see Leon chained to a bed, asleep. Haven attempted to wake him, but Leon did not respond. Although Tyrion drew steel, the friendly priests of Sarenrae explained that Leon was brought to the temple, found in this permanent sleep-like state. Leon was able to eat and drink, but apart from that he kept walking in a particular direction. This usually caused him to walk into objects or other people. The reason the priests chained him was because the direction he went would cause him to fall off a cliff. The church had tried many of their curing spells on him, but to no avail - this condition or curse seemed to be supernaturally induced. There was only one option the priests had not tried which was allowing Leon to walk off the cliff. The party decided to unchain Leon and escort him when he next sleepwalked. The night came and Leon arose and immediately proceeded to walk into a wall. The party dragged him outside and followed him as he made his way out of the urban area and into the outer wildland of the island, closely following Leon's slow steps. Overcoming an ambush of leeches and shambling mounds in the swamp, the party stopped at the cliff where Leon still was walking towards. They decided to lower him down the cliff edge using some strong silk rope. Once they were all on the narrow beach, they discovered some large, old wooden statues and a hidden door set in the cliff face. Upon touching the door the statues came to life and when the party defeated the golems the door opened. Descending down a passageway, the party discovered some lost, ancient ruins and were found a stone statue holding a rod, pointing at another door. Tully recognised the stick as a wand of Ray of Enfeeblement, which became instrumental in bypassing the door. The party was then confronted by two beings, both of which had hidden their alignments. They were trapped within impenetrable force fields of energy and were in separate rooms. One of them was a gnome adventurer, and claimed that he came with a group of adventurers to vanquish a demonic being that was defiling the ruins of this ancient temple. He said that the demon wiped out his adventuring team but he tried to use a scroll of magic and accidentally trapped himself and the demon. The party then listened to what the other being had to say. It looked like an angel, and claimed to be a celestial being who had teleported in to destroy a demonic defiler of the old temple. However, their magic had clashed and resulted in them being caged. The celestial being recognised Leon and revealed to the party that it had planted a subconscious message in Leon as he was walking near the cliff edge one day, in the hope that Leon would fetch help. The spell did not go quite as planned, but the celestial being released Leon from his hypnotic state. Unfortunately Haven decided to continue being angry with the celestial being, and called it 'evil' for having used her brother. She then embraced Leon and the two became inseperable as they caught up on each other's lives. The celestial being said that the party would need to speak a certain few words to the demon in order to banish it, working in conjunction with the magic of the force field. After more discussion with both beings, Tully decided to try speaking the words at the gnome. Realising what was about to happen, the gnome shapechanged into its true form, and lashed at the cage before disintegrating. Elras then began purifying the area with further instruction from the celestial being, who then teleported away after thanking the party for their help. Whilst sleeping again at Cherry's ship, Tully decided to leave after realising that the party was in the middle of nowhere, and slipping away from the grasp of the City Watch would be all too easy. With nothing left for him in Leonore, Tully asked Cherry to get him off the island away from the party. She did not like traitors however, so she deceived him into travelling with some rather unpleasant company. The party awoke to find him gone, and Cherry passed on the news. Elras offered to join the group and Haven and Tyrion accepted, although surprisingly with reluctance. They had one more appointment to make before leaving the island and that was to rendez-vous with the rescued Dragon who they had promised to meet at Mermaid's Reef. The dragon however was not alone and had brought someone with him, who was introduced to the party as Dh'argo'VakSin'Dillax. This human was sorcerer dragon disciple, servant to the dragons in exchange for their knowledge. The Dragon revealed that his clan knew that one of the orbs was not actually destroyed - it was locked away centuries ago in a pocket plane instead, and the portal was sealed with powerful magic. However, time had eroded the safeguarding magic to the portal, and the dragons wished to send Dh'argo to retrieve it so it may be destroyed. As it was sealed away with draconic blood, no dragon could enter the portal, but Dh'argo was mainly a human, so he would be an ideal candidate for their mission, though they did not wish for him to go alone. The party seemed to serve the dragons' needs. The Dragon then teleported the party as close to the location of the portal as the dragons believed it to be but before they left Haven said farewell to Leon, who decided to stay with Cherry and her crew who would be departing for Leonore shortly. Haven, Tyrion, Dh'argo and Elras suddenly found themselves in Inverlae, the western kingdom of the elves. Notable NPC's *Fensom *Tyrill